Homebirth Babble

Most recentlyGisele Bundchen's home birth of her son in December has been a topic of discussion. But there have been many other celebrities who've birthed at home. This is of course good for the homebirth awareness cause, but myself and some others wonder if this makes the anti-homebirth group cry "Trend!" in regards to women choosing to birth at home. Obviously, there's hardly anything trendy about the way women have been birthing since the dawn of time. However, since the big push to move birth from home to hospital and replace midwives with OBs it seems that anyone who has a natural birth even in the hospital is "primal and crazy".

If you've ever been around a group of women discussing birth, you've probably noticed a similar trend. Stories told with a life threatening complication and drama, how they had to endure this and the doctor had to do that and it was an awful horrible experience...but it was all worth it to have a healthy baby. You may have been one of these women, I know I was. I told my first birth story with excitement and enthusiasm but it wasn't that of a happy or calm birth, it was that of peril and fear; of internal monitoring and the "need" for an episiotomy that's left me forever scarred (literally and figuratively).

Now, if you've been lucky enough to talk to a group of homebirth (or even natural birthing) women, the stories are much different. They have that same excited tone and dramatic arm movements, but yet, there's a calm and tranquil quality to the woman who experienced birth in her own home. Even if a "complication" arose, they usually include how their midwife simply did X, Y or Z and the rest went smoothly.

I would love to hear these celebrity accounts of homebirth, straight from their mouths. After all, drama is their JOB, so I can only imagine how intriguing these stories are. I do hope to continue to see many more celebrities choose homebirth, and I'd love to hear more public speeches on their experiences. I also hope that the anti-homebirth movement stops claiming that homebirthing is a "trendy, new-age" idea simply because in the last CENTURY birth was taken from home.

I'd also love to hear YOUR thoughts on celebrities, homebirth and the idea of the supposed trend. What are your thoughts on it all?